Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2016

EF0 tornado, Simmons to Three Rivers, Texas, May 31, 2016

From Simmons to Three Rivers, this EF0 tornado ran 2.7 miles across Live Oak County on May 31, 2016, touching down at 5:33 PM CDT and reaching 25 yards wide. It killed nobody.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Enhanced Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

    Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

  2. EF186 to 110 mph

    Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

  3. EF2111 to 135 mph

    Considerable damage. Roofs torn off well-built houses, frame homes shifted on their foundations, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, cars lifted off the ground.

  4. EF3136 to 165 mph

    Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

  5. EF4166 to 200 mph

    Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

  6. EF5over 200 mph

    Incredible damage. Strong frame houses swept off their foundations, car-sized missiles thrown more than 100 meters, steel-reinforced concrete badly damaged, high-rise buildings deformed.

  7. Unrated

    The survey recorded a tornado but could not put a number on it, most often because it crossed open country and damaged nothing a rating can be read from.

The record

Rating
EF0
Date
May 31, 2016
Touchdown
5:33 PM CDT (22:33 UTC)
Lifted
5:38 PM CDT (22:38 UTC)
On the ground
5 minutes
Path length
2.7 miles (4.3 km)
Path width
25 yards (23 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Live Oak County
Touchdown point
28.488, -98.287
Lift-off point
28.503, -98.247
Record number
1605311633-01

What the Weather Service recorded

An upper level disturbance moving across South Texas, combined with a very moist and unstable atmosphere, produced strong to severe thunderstorms across South Texas on May 31st. The strongest storms crossed Kleberg County and produced 3 tornadoes, very strong winds, large hail, and torrential rainfall.

Weak waterspout over northeast part of Choke Canyon Reservoir moved onshore.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

The warnings

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
22:02 UTC22:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningCRP
22:19 UTC08:50 UTCFlash Flood WatchCRP
22:38 UTC23:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningCRP
22:47 UTC23:15 UTCTornado WarningCRP
23:07 UTC23:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningCRP
23:29 UTC01:30 UTCFlood AdvisoryCRP
01:29 UTC03:10 UTCFlood AdvisoryCRP

Every warning and watch covering the touchdown point that day, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service products. Lead time is measured from the issue of the warning in force to the touchdown time in the database, both of which were recorded to the minute by different people.

The forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Marginal Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:56 UTC.

SPC's Day 1 convective outlook as it stood when the tornado began, read at the touchdown point. The same archive is on the radar archive.

The air that afternoon

The radiosonde launches on either side of the tornado, from the nearest station that was launching then, drawn and analyzed the way Storm Lab does: the same diagram, the same parcel and shear definitions SPC's mesoanalysis uses.

Corpus Christi, TX (KCRP), 12:00Z

10.6 hours before the tornado, 125 km from the path. May 31, 2016.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Corpus Christi, TX at 12:00Z on 2016-05-31Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2719 joules per kilogram, CIN -3, lifted condensation level 624 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Corpus Christi, TX at 12:00Z on 2016-05-31The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 13 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 10 knots.193958Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
2719 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-3 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2248 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
624 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
10 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
10 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
13 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
8 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Corpus Christi, TX (KCRP), 00:00Z

1.4 hours after it, 125 km from the path. June 1, 2016.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Corpus Christi, TX at 00:00Z on 2016-06-01Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1373 joules per kilogram, CIN -22, lifted condensation level 876 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Corpus Christi, TX at 00:00Z on 2016-06-01The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 39 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 30 knots.19395878Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
1373 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-22 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2611 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
876 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
30 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
7 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
39 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
57 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.2
Supercell composite
1.6
0-3 km lapse rate
5.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Beeville (BEA), 49 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
20:35 UTC87.2677.18140° 14 kt181008.5
20:55 UTC8676.28140° 12 kt191007.8
21:15 UTC86.3676120° 15 kt181007.8
21:35 UTC83.8475.2130° 12 kt221007.5
21:55 UTC82.5875120° 11 kt171006.4
22:15 UTC82.474.66140° 13 kt181007.8
22:35 UTC81.574.3130° 11 kt191007.8
22:55 UTC80.2474.66110° 10 kt201007.8-DZ
23:15 UTC8075140° 10 kt141009.8TSRA
23:35 UTC78.2676.64140° 5 kt1010.5-TSRA
23:55 UTC7775.74360° 9 kt181011.2TSRA
00:15 UTC70.770.16330° 18 kt311012.2+VCTSRA

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The radar

The Corpus Christi radar (KCRP), 108 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:32 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment, over the track

Reflectivity and velocity, decoded from the Level II archive in the browser. Volumes take a few seconds to open the first time.

What was reported nearby

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
20:55 UTCHAIL 112 S TildenMcmullen, TXQUARTER SIZE HAIL REPORTED WEST OF HWY 16 NEAR THE NUECES RIVER
22:33 UTCTORNADOChoke CanyonLive Oak, TXWATERSPOUT OVER CHOKE CANYON LAKE MOVED ONSHORE
23:15 UTCFUNNEL CLOUDPettusBee, TXTWO FUNNEL CLOUDS REPORTED BY EM NEAR PETTUS.
23:39 UTCHAIL 0.2515 W BeevilleLive Oak, TX
01:01 UTCHEAVY RAIN 3.513 N MineralBee, TXSTORM TOTAL SO FAR.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2016 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of May 31, 2016

8 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 3110:04 AM CDTEF0Clinton, IA0.010
May 315:28 PM CDTUnratedGrady, OK0.530
May 315:28 PM CDTUnratedGrady, OK0.730
May 315:28 PM CDTUnratedGrady, OK0.730
May 316:30 PM CDTEF1Kleberg, TX0.9200$2.5 million
May 316:41 PM CDTEF1Kleberg, TX2.3400$1.0 million
May 316:53 PM CDTEF0Kleberg, TX0.430
May 317:04 PM CDTEF0Putnam, MO0.020

What this means

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. Tornado counts rise through the record as reporting improved, so a year in the 1950s is not comparable with one today except for the strongest tornadoes, which were always noticed.

Sources

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.